“Hey, We’re hiring!”
“Hiring the BEST people for your business is your most important task”- Steve Jobs.
There’s no denying that Steve Jobs was a creative genius. He revolutionized mobile computing and turned the PC game on its head. What worked wonders for Jobs was not his brilliance or relationship with technology but his unwavering faith in his people.
Yes, that’s right. Jobs placed a great deal of importance on recruiting the right people. He knew that the right talent could usher in legions of success. “The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world,” Jobs once said.
As a startup founder, you can take a page out of Jobs’ book by going the extra mile to hire the perfect candidates for your business. Remember, it is always the people and their ideas that drive organizations.
Why is Hiring Crucial?
Startups are like raw clay pots that must be moulded into great businesses. It would require a solid team to build a reliable product and, thus, a healthy company. That is why, in today’s ecosystem, there is a lot of job hopping among startup talent. You may don different hats early in your startup journey—from client servicing to investor management—but you might spread yourself far too thin at some point. At this point, the people you rope in will become the face of your company. Founding members play an especially crucial role in your startup’s success. You want the initial interactions your investors or customers have with your company to be positive, motivating, and reassuring. That’s why hiring should be your priority right from the beginning. The initial hires you make will set the tone for your company’s culture and how you steer the ship thereon. See the likes of Google or Facebook. They were startups a while ago, and yet, even now, they owe their growth to higher employee engagement and positive workplace culture.
Moreover, if you have a funded startup, involve yourself in hiring senior talent as much as you can afford. Such senior talent provides the required shape for the startup to form a great business. The whole organizational strategy can go wrong because of the need for more senior resources.
But hiring qualified people for your startup isn’t enough. When hiring second-level leadership, you should hunt for people with commitment, alignment with your company’s vision, and intense chemistry with the top leadership. If you ever hit choppy waters, these are the people who will hold up your ship. You don’t want people who will bolt at the first sign of a challenge. Hiring the wrong employees can cost you a fortune. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employees are worth six to nine months of their salary. One wrong hiring decision can topple your bottom line, and that’s not something a startup can afford.
How to Identify the Right People for Your Startup?
When narrowing down who you want on your side when building your team, please pay close attention to their career intentions, people skills, and ability to adapt.
Your top leadership should consist of people who are good at strategizing, conversing convincingly with investors, helping with fundraising, being innovative, and, most importantly, understanding your startup’s vision. A person might have a great resume but be a misfit in your organization if they don’t understand your vision. That will bring you a lot more trouble than expertise. Between the Board of Directors, investors, other external stakeholders, and employees, startups have many moving parts. Your top leadership can be the cog in the machine that makes all those pieces work smoothly together.
Middle-level management, such as managers or team leaders, is just as crucial to your startup’s success. Be transparent about your expectations from them before you hire these key players, and set up a round of discussion with the founders and top management so that everyone can agree on them being a good fit.
Giving everyone an equal say on the team’s build fosters trust, loyalty, and a feeling of comfort that will help your business prosper. If startups show a broad vision, have plans for future growth, offer ESOPs, and have a vibrant organizational culture, they can attract great talent.
Finally, remember that every person you bring on board will be responsible for your business’s functions. Even if you hire an intern, you must ensure they get their A-game. These interns are potentially your future hires, so be prudent when onboarding them.
Win the People Game
There is no magic formula for startup recruiting, but you can prepare for it. But sometimes, despite your best efforts, you may need to correct a mistake. How you react to those situations is more significant than the situation itself. Work on identifying and fixing the problem instead of brooding or playing the blame game. This is why hiring for attitude instead of just skills is essential. Your people define your startup and are the catalysts for achieving your goals. Foster a healthy relationship with your employees. Spend time getting to know them, using their skills, and encouraging a work-life balance that makes them want to go the long haul with you.